To Kiss or Not to Kiss?
by Princess SimbiAni Dreamz a'Luv
Summary: !1998! They were dancing, & then they stopped. It seemed they would.. but why did he walk away? Story leads up to when they go to sleep. Cute bantering between Anya & Dimitri! Continues in Tasha. /songfic: Clay Walker\


**"To Kiss or Not to Kiss?"**   
by SimbiAni™ 

Summary: «ANASTASIA» They were dancing, & then- they stopped. It seemed they would... but why did he walk away? Story leads up to when they go to sleep. Cute bantering between Anya & Dimitri! Continues in -Tasha-. ©98. Plz read&review, thx! «songfic» Clay Walker, "You're Beginning to Get to Me". Lyrics may be slightly diff to fit story. 

(warning: this fic is already 7 years old... lmao once again, its OLD and not new!) 

•§• 

They were dancing on the boat. Vlad was still singing gently, and the song was almost over. Caught in their romantic moment, Anya & Dimitri started talking again... 

"I'm feeling a little... dizzy..." Anya breathed. 

"Kind of light-headed?" Dimitri asked softly. 

"Yeah..." 

"Me, too... probably from spinning..." 

They slowed down, and stood facing each other. The rest of the world seemed to keep spinning around them, for they had fallen deep... 

"Maybe we should stop..." Dimitri suggested. 

"We _have_ stopped..." 

Dimitri looked surprised. "Anya, I..." 

"Yes?..." She waited for him to answer, but of course, they instead followed the feeling of romance, and leaned in to kiss. 

Pooka saw this and barked protectively of HIS Anya. Vlad had tried to shush the puppy, but Pooka would have none of it. He jumped out of Vlad's arms and ran to Anya's feet. 

This seemed to jolt Dimitri back to reality, and he realized what he had almost done. Kiss Anya? No! He couldn't! Quickly, he backed up, and to avoid anything, he patted Anya's hand gently, with a compliment on her dancing skills. "You're doing fine..." Then he walked away, and went downstairs. 

Anya stared after him, confused. What had just happened? She went to say something, to call after him, but Vlad stopped her. 

"Let him go." 

"But why? Why did he leave like that?" 

"Why, my dear, because he's very shy... He's never been... um, in... uh, never been... well, you know..." He couldn't bring himself to say it right to Anya, he wanted her to figure it out for herself. 

"In... love?" She guessed. "You mean he actually can be shy? Hmm..." She pondered that thought with interest. 

"He's just not... used to feeling that way..." 

Anya shrugged. "Okay... but I hope he can face me for the rest of the trip!" She smiled, jokingly. 

Vlad smiled with her. He wondered, was she in luv, too? She had to be. So, he smiled again. 

Then, they noticed that the sun had set. 

Anya picked up Pooka and cuddled the tiny puppy. Walking over to the other side of the boat, she whispered to him so that Vlad would not hear, "Why did you go and do that?" Pooka whined. "I know what you were thinking, but really, mmm, I'd almost gotten to him... Now that I think about it, he is kinda cute, isn't he?" Pooka growled his disagreement. "Oh, don't worry, you're still cute, too!" Pooka licked her face. "Though he is handsome and I bet he's hiding something... I just wish I knew what it was..." She petted the dog, then set him down at her feet. 

Vlad came over and spoke to her. "It's getting late; but before I go to sleep, I would like to stay up here for a while, you know, my dear, enjoy the fresh air. You can go down and change into some pajamas that are in one of the suitcases. And... there's some candy in one of the suitcases' pockets, if you would like a snack..." 

Anya sighed. "Okay, thanks." She slowly went to the top of the short stairs, and tip-toed down them. She came to the door of their one room. Taking a deep breath, she knocked. She was right; Dimitri was in there, and he did answer. 

"What?" 

"Um, Vlad said, in one of the suitcases, you have some, pajamas, for me?" 

"Oh, it's just you..." Dimitri got up to open the door.. He'd been getting ready to sleep. Now he cautiously pulled the door open. Anya was there, waiting to be let in. 

"So?... Do you know which suitcase?" 

"Yeah- yeah, one of those..." He pointed to the suitcases around his make-shift bed on the floor across from the bunkbed. 

She went to them. "Okay..." Kneeling next to the suitcases, she opened the first one. 

"Hurry up." 

She gave him a quick look of annoyance. 

He didn't see it as he sat on the bottom bunk and looked at his watch. Then he crossed his arms and watched her as she went through the suitcases. But try as he might, he could not forget what he'd almost done earlier. Kiss her? Anya? The girl they were just supposed to pass off as a Grand Duchess in their con? What was he thinking when he did that? As he ran his fingers through his hair, in exhaustion from all that had happened so far on this trip, his critical stare at the little orphan in a blue dress gradually turned into- against his will- a loving gaze. For some reason, he just liked, really liked her. Why? Maybe, like what a famous writer had once said, '... the way he constantly argued with her that drove his mind in circles... yet, in a way, he kind of enjoyed it, and he felt a sense of excitement, and connectedness (is that a word?) that he had never felt before...' Or in a long time... 

Suddenly, Anya spoke to him, bringing him out of his daze. "Want some?" She held out a foil-wrapped hard candy to him, one of the few they'd had in a suitcase pocket. 

He stared at her with a bit of distrust. 

"Oh, come on, Dimitri, it won't bite you!" She tried not to laugh... 

"I know that!" He snatched it outta her hand, and immmediately wondered why he kinda wished he'd held her hand longer. 

And of course, she could not keep her laughter in anymore. Silently, she giggled. 

"What's funny?" 

She covered her mouth and took a breath. "Nothing, it's just..." 

Dimitri raised his eyebrow. He knew she was laughing at something. "What?" 

Anya saw that he wanted to know, so she came up with a way to ask him what she wanted to know, even though he probably wouldn't tell her anyway... "Well, I was just remembering something Vlad said after you... left. He said a most ridiculous thought, which could not possibly be true..." 

Dimitri rolled his eyes, 'cuz he knew Vlad, and he could just imagine what Vlad had told Anya. He did want to know, though he was kinda afraid of asking Anya what it was, he did. "Well, what did he say?" 

"Um... well, he said..." She had to take another deep breath. "Well, he said..." She had planned to say what Vlad had told her, that Dimitri had walked away 'cuz maybe, just maybe, he was falling in love, with her, and he didn't want to... But then she changed her mind, 'cuz it just seemed too forward of an approach. "He said you walked away 'cuz you're actually... very shy!" 

Dimitri immediately responded in protest to this suggestion. "I am not!" 

Anya stood up and sat on the bed next to him. "Oh, really? I think he's right." 

Dimitri was getting tired. He wanted to get to sleep. Maybe his dreams would sort all this out. Yet again, he remembered the real Anastasia. Oh, no, now that he thought about it, this Anya DID seem more like Anastasia! What if she was? Ah, forget it; what are the chances? Impossible, that's what. (Yes, it is a coinky-dink that they've thought the same thing of their finding each other!) So, tired, he gave up. "Okay, so what if I am? What does that prove?" 

Anya was surprised at his sudden surrender. "Um... it proves that... you're shy and I'm not!" She quickly jumped off the bed and grabbed the pajamas from the open suitcase she'd found them in. "Now, you should, um, leave, 'cuz I gotta change..." 

He shook his head, and walked to the door. Once more, he said "Hurry up." 

Frustrated by him, she pushed him out the door the rest of the way and shut it tight. Then she leaned against it, sliding down to the floor. "I just don't understand him!" The thought that she might be falling in love with him, too, crossed her mind, but only briefly, 'cuz she refused to think about that, brushing the thought away. "No, not me! I couldn't possibly be!" She sighed again. Then, she changed out of her dress and into the pajamas. She put her dress and tights away in the suitcase for tomorrow. Her boots were on the floor at the foot of the bed. As she re-made the bottom bunk, she pulled her ponytail out of her hair and let her hair flow free, with only the blue bow in it. Then she retrieved a brush from one of the suitcases, and started brushing her hair around the blue bow. That's when she realized, she'd forgotten to tell Dimitri that she was done dressing. 

"Aren't you finished yet?" He called from the hallway. 

Anya jumped up, laughing. "Uh, yes, Dimitri! Don't worry, you can come in now!" She opened the door. 

He gave her a sarcastic look. "Believe me, I'm not worried at all." He did come in, and quickly re-made his makeshift bed amidst the suitcases. 

Anya watched him from the doorway. "What are you doing?" 

He looked at her. "Well, I decided I'd just sleep on the floor, here, while you and Vlad can have the bunkbeds. Now, could you hand me a blanket?" 

She stifled her giggles. How could she not annoy him further? She couldn't help it. "Be polite." 

He stared at her. Then; "Okay, please- Can you hand me a blanket?" 

She did. 

He continued to sort a small sleep space for himself. 

Bored, she decided to give asking him one more chance. So she knelt next to him. "Dimitri, have you, um, have ya, uh, ever been..." 

He looked at her. "Why is it that you stutter so much since recently?" 

She was trying to say it, but now narrowed her eyes, for he had finally lined her. Darn. "I'm NOT stuttering; I'm just, trying to find a way to say something." 

"Well, say it already; I don't have all night." 

Anya was now even more discouraged by his avoidance. She bit her lip. "Okay, I will. (deep breath!) Have you ever been in love?" He stopped. Cold. Wow. She had really asked him that. What was she thinking! Especially after their both trying to avoid talking about the near-kiss! She covered her mouth with her hands and stared at him in anticipation. 

He sighed. And lied. Well, not really, but she didn't know what had happened to him when he knew the princess, and he'd never tell her. Truth was, he'd loved her (the real Anastasia). But he hadn't had a chance to find out how she felt about him. She was kind of a tomboy, anyway. And, well, they were kids. So he simply said: "No. No, and why are you asking me that?" He was as serious as she was. 

She shook her head, now wondering what had been her point. "Well, I just wanted to know, that's all..." She shrugged. Then she reached out to take his hand. Man, she was brave. And he liked holding her hand, too. She could tell. "So, um, would you? Fall in love?... Not that _I_ like you or anything! But... would you?" 

He looked at her. What was she getting at? "With you? No way!" 

Anya was taken aback. So she tried again. "Come on, admit it; you like being bugged by me!" 

"No, I do NOT! I just... well, really, I..." To be calmer, he pulled his hand away, and took another deep breath, too. "I'm not saying that I'm in love, really! I'd just, um, well, you know I'd admit if I was!" 

"Yeah, right..." She crossed her arms. 

"I'm just saying that I believe: You're beginning to get to me!" 

Anya gasped. "I knew it!" She pointed at him in triumph. 

"Now, let me go to sleep!" He pulled the blanket over him as he lay down, with an extra pillow from one of the beds. The rest of the song went on in his mind... _The way I need you since that time we met; The way you hold this heart of mine! I just think it's time I'd admit (if only to myself), you're beginning to get to me!_ As he began to doze off, he realized Anya was still kneeling next to him. So he, sleepily, said aloud to her, "I don't love you, Anya." 

And she smiled. "Okay!" Then she sat back against the bottom bunkbed and continued to brush her hair. She knew maybe sometime in the future Dimitri would confess. And she would be patient. As she brushed, more time passed. Soon Vlad came down, and sat beside her. He was a bit woozy now, for too much staring at the dark sea at night had made him a teeny bit sea-sick! Anya had pulled a blanket down to wrap around her as she sat on the floor. She'd eaten some more of the little candies, too. Her hair was starting to look really smooth and sleek. Also, Pooka had come down with Vlad, and he played about Anya's feet. 

_(continues as in the movie)_

... 

ANASTASiA™ is copyright of 20thC.Fox, etc. ˆ-ˆ 

PS. Believe it or not, this is a work of fiction. All the incidents, names, and characters are imaginary.  
Any resemblence to actual persons etc, living or dead, is completely coincidental. ˆ-˜   
©98 


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